Name: Brandy Snaps
Ingredients: 2 cups best Vienna flour; ½ cup Demerara sugar; ½ cup golden syrup

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Brandy Snaps

Oven, in the book's wordsA fairly warm oven

Ingredients

2 cups best Vienna flour
½ cup Demerara sugar
½ cup golden syrup

Directions

The book says “a fairly warm oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Sift the flour into a bowl and add the sugar.
Make a hole in the center and pour in the golden syrup.
Mix all ingredients well.
On a floured board, roll out the mixture very thinly, using minimal flour.
Cut out rounds the size of a tumbler.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 10 minutes.
While warm, wrap the snaps around a thick stick or rolling pin.
Serve for afternoon tea or dessert.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + syruptop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,540 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).